Easter Market Prague

Some of you may remember our blog last year about the Christmas markets. Well, it's now spring, and the Easter markets have come to Old Town Square.

There aren't as many vendors for this market, so the Square isn't quite as crowded, but the spring decorations are fun to see, and the weather is warmer. (slightly!)

Our favorite vendor is the waffle-cookie man!! His booth is in the midst of that crowd somewhere.

The gentleman in the photo below plays his saxophone in the square, and is a favorite with the tourist groups, young and old. His specialties are show tunes & tunes from the big band era, although in these pics he is playing to a group of Italian kids, getting them to sing Volare with him. They are lovin' it!!

An Easter egg...

And of course the Easter tree.

And you can watch all the action from the viewing stand...

Gotta love this place!!!

Mom and the boys visit

Laura brought the boys for a visit as she needed to retrieve her vacuum cleaner that we had been borrowing. When she arrived, we had not yet installed the new couch covers, so we did it together.

Fruits of our labor....

Owen is practicing his "Power-Ranger" moves...

And Elliot is growing!

Shopping!

Part of the fun of moving here was that we didn't bring anything other than clothes and some very small items with us, so we can now acquire lots of new stuff! It's like being newlyweds all over again!

Laura gave up one whole evening to drive us to IKEA (and by the way, she is a great driver in this city traffic. Must be the NJ training!). Much to Tom's dismay, we spent HOURS in every department of the store - choosing dishes, silverware, cookware, bedding, etc.

Laura was a great help, having done this before for herself and others who have moved to Prague. She read labels for us, and gave good advice on the quality of various types of items.

Lost in the kitchen ware....



We also bought a few things that needed to be assembled. This is a very small stepstool. It was actually easier to assemble than you might think. We bought a dresser for the bedroom as well, and that came in two large flat boxes. We put that together yesterday (no photos) with no lost pieces, and it looks great!

The flat came with two couches, and I thought we had a photo of them, but we can't find it. However, one couch was bright red, and the other was white. Since most all the furniture here comes from IKEA anyway, Laura said not a problem- we can get covers for both couches. She is an expert at the various styles of couches and their names and how to find the couch covers, which was a tremendous help to us. I doubt we could have navigated that department on our own!

Anyway, this is our new color scheme.

The dining room chairs originally had white seats, which looked OK from a distance, but when we moved in I realized that they were filthy and would need to be recovered. Lo and behold, IKEA sells pre-made seat covers, which made changing them a breeze!!

And all the while we were shopping for the girlie things an apartment needs, Tom was plotting his revenge. On Sunday, he and Chris went shopping, and came home with the items below...

We are now fairly set with the basics - but we have lots more to buy, such as curtains, a desk, art work for the walls, a few floor coverings, and oh yes, furnishings for the spare room so that we can welcome guests!

Take a Hike Guys!

Last Saturday some ladies got together for, you guessed it, another baby shower. This time it was for Joanna, who is expecting a baby boy in April.

The big boys weren't invited (only Elliot) so Tom, Chris & Owen went hiking in a wilderness (?)area near the Praha airport.


You need to double click on the photo below so that you can see the carving in this tree trunk. Owen was a little leery of it at first.

Ah - the creek! Luckily no one fell in!

Rock climbing....

Such fun and so close to the city!!

New Home

Thank you to all who have been thinking of us in our quest to find the perfect flat!!

We signed a contract Wednesday, and paid our rent, although we don't actually get the keys until Sunday evening.

We chose this flat primarily because of the location (Prague 6 near the Green line Metro) and because of the terraces.

Our building is not a beautiful old European-style building, but we figured that was OK because we can look at those types of buildings across the street :-)

This is one terrace, overlooking a courtyard. We did ask for those racks and the miscellaneous junk to be removed.

This is the other terrace. We are on the 6th floor, so we have a fairly decent view.

View across the street......

Yep - that's our terrace way up there- there is one floor above ours, so we are not quite at the top!

And this is the dining/kitchen area. We are keeping a lot of the furniture that was already in the flat, including this table.

Signs of Spring

The sun is shining-and look! Green!!

Random photos - really random!!

I hate to admit we succumbed to the lure of the familiar......

Just to be fair- I should point out that we have also purchased Bohemian chips with paprika which I like better!


I guess we know where this boy's roots are....

Architectural detail spotted on one of our many walks in Chris's neighborhood.. We think this sort of thing is so cool!

The window in room 501... The view is much better than this out the window, really, but Tom took this photo to illustrate how thick the walls are in this building. We love the double windows, and must brag that it was warm enough yesterday and today to actually open them! We were also trying to air out all the germs :-(

Prague Plague

I thought I lost her to the Plague, but she survived! Here is Cyndy trying to apply a hot cup of tea to her sinuses to clear them up.